Scalable stroke font system and method

ABSTRACT

A method of creating font format data from source font data includes analyzing the source font data to obtain glyph data for a plurality of glyphs, dissecting the glyph data, extracting midline data from the dissected glyph data, classifying the midline data as unique element data and common element data, associating unique element data and common element data to each glyph of the plurality of glyphs.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional ApplicationsSer. Nos. 60/393,795, filed Jul. 3, 2002, and 60/400,373, filed Jul. 31,2002, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

This invention generally relates to scalable stroke fonts, and inparticular relates to a system and method for creating scalable strokefont data and storing scalable stroke font data on a mobile computingdevice (“mobile device”).

2. Background

Text data, such as font data, is typically stored in a memory in amobile device. Because the mobile device typically has relativelylimited memory and processing resources, the amount of text data storedon the mobile device and the text rendering capability of the mobiledevice is often limited.

There are three basic font types: Bitmap, Outline and Stroke. Bitmapfonts are stored as graphic images of characters with each point size ofa typeface stored as a separate font. Each character is stored as anarray of pixels (a bitmap). Bitmap fonts require a relatively largeamount of storage space, and it is relatively difficult to scale orapply effects to this type of font.

Outline fonts, such as TrueType™ fonts, are produced from informationabout the shape, or outline, of the glyphs. The outline is defined as aset of lines and curves. Outline fonts facilitate scaling and othereffects better than bitmap fonts, and require less storage space thanbitmap fonts. Many mobile devices, however, typically do not have thestorage space and processing requirements to adequately facilitate theuse of outline fonts.

Stroke fonts are those in which the shapes of the characters, asrepresented by glyphs, are represented by strokes. A stroke is typicallydefined by a line and curves. The storage space required for stroke fontdata for a given set of glyphs is typically much smaller than requiredfor corresponding outline font data. Stroke fonts, however, typicallyproduce glyphs with impaired quality as compared to outline fonts. Thus,existing rendering engines that render stroke-based fonts produce glyphsof relatively limited quality.

SUMMARY

A method of creating font format data from source font data includesanalyzing the source font data to obtain glyph data for a plurality ofglyphs, dissecting the glyph data, extracting midline data from thedissected glyph data, classifying the midline data as unique elementdata and common element data, and associating unique element data andcommon element data to each glyph of the plurality of glyphs.

A system for creating font format data from source font data includes aglyph analysis software module, a glyph dissection software module, amidline extraction software module, and an element analysis softwaremodule. The glyph analysis software module is operable to analyze thesource font data and obtain glyph data for a plurality of glyphs fromthe source font data.

The glyph dissection software module is operable to dissect the glyphdata for each glyph into stroke data. The midline extraction softwaremodule is operable to extract midline data from the stroke data. Theelement analysis software module is operable to classify the midlinedata as unique element data and common element data and associate theunique element data and the common element data to each glyph of theplurality of glyphs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary mobile device;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a compact font format data structure;

FIG. 3 illustrates repetitive usage of a common element in differentglyphs;

FIG. 4 illustrates shifting and scaling of a common element;

FIG. 5A is a flowchart of a method of creating a stroke font from anoutline font;

FIG. 5B is a more detailed flowchart of a glyph analysis process;

FIG. 5C is a flowchart of an exemplary simplification process.

FIG. 5D is a more detailed flowchart of a containment analysis process;

FIG. 5E is a flowchart of an exemplary glyph dissection process;

FIG. 5F is a more detailed flowchart of the glyph dissection process;

FIG. 6 illustrates a glyph in a non-simplified form and in a simplifiedform;

FIG. 7 illustrates a glyph having an inner contour and an outer contour;

FIG. 8 illustrates a glyph having valid and non-valid neighbors of apoint;

FIG. 9 illustrates a glyph dissected into strokes;

FIG. 10 illustrates a dissected glyph;

FIG. 11 illustrates a waiting angle for several points;

FIG. 12 is an exemplary log from processing the exemplary glyph of FIG.10; and

FIG. 13 illustrates an explicitly connected stroke.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Font data is typically stored on a computing device and is used torender text as glyphs. A font is a set of characters of a particulartypeface design and size. The typeface is the particular design of a setof printed characters, such as Courier, Helvetica or Times Roman.Related characters typically comprise a script, such as Latin, Greek,Hiragana, Katakana or Han, subsets of which are used to write aparticular language.

Glyphs are the visual element used to represent the characters; glyphsare the actual shape of a character image. Aspects of text presentationsuch as font and style apply to glyphs. For example, an italic Timesfont of the character “c” and a bold Times font of the character “c”each have corresponding glyphs.

A typical computing device that is operable to store text data for usein rendering text may be a personal computer or a mobile communicationdevice. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary mobile device 100 thatis operable to display text on a display 102. The mobile device 100includes an application program 104, usually stored in the storage 108,which is operable to request text to be displayed on the display 102. Arendering engine 106 is operable to receive the request from theapplication program 104 and, in response, retrieve the font data of thetext from the storage 108 and render the font data into glyphs that aredisplayed on the display 102.

The mobile device 100 may be realized by a cellular telephone, a pager,a personal digital assistant, or other mobile computing device. If themobile device 100 includes communication circuitry and functions, thenthe mobile device 100 is typically operable to communicate with awireless network 110. The storage 108 is operable to store data in oneor more formats, and may comprise a database, a file, a ROM or RAMmemory, a network storage space, or even a memory storage for therendering engine, such as a Flash memory module. The display 102 may bea CRT monitor, an LCD monitor, or other similar display device. One suchexemplary mobile device 100 may be of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat.No. 6,278,442, entitled “HAND-HELD ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH A KEYBOARDOPTIMIZED FOR USE WITH THE THUMBS,” the entire disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

The font data of the text may be stored as a stroke font that is definedby a “skeleton” of the characters. The skeleton comprises elements thatmay be common with other glyphs, and unique elements that may be uniqueto a particular glyph. The rendering engine 106 renders the skeletons ofcharacters to produce glyphs for displaying on the display 102.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a compact font format data structure 200operable to store a skeleton of an exemplary glyph. A plurality of datastructures 200 may be stored to represent a corresponding plurality ofglyphs. The data structure 200 may be stored in the storage 108 on themobile device 100.

The data structure 200 illustratively comprises common elements 202 andunique elements 212. Each common element 202 comprises an elementidentifier 204, a shift X value 206, a shift Y value 208, and a scalingvalue 210. A common element identifier 204 corresponds to an elementthat may be common to two or more glyphs. Each unique element 212comprises a unique element identifier 214 and an element description216. A unique element identifier 214 is an element that is unique to aparticular glyph. A particular glyph may be represented by commonelements 202, unique elements 212, or a combination of common elements202 and unique elements 212.

An element database 250 stores description data 218 for the commonelements 202 identified by common element identifiers 204. Thedescription data 218 is a set of points in an X-Y coordinate system thatdefines the lines and curves of the element. Other description data mayalso be used, however.

The particular glyph represented by the illustrative data structure 200of FIG. 2 comprises common elements 202 identified by common elementidentifiers 001, 020, and 420. Because the description data 218 in theelement database only describes the shape of the common elements 202,however, the common elements 202 are typically shifted in the X-Ycoordinate system and scaled, as required by each particular glyphhaving such common elements 202. Accordingly, a shift X value 206includes data relating to the shifting of the common element 202 alongan x-axis on the X-Y coordinate system, and a shift Y value 208 includesdata relating to the shifting of the common element 202 along a y-axison the X-Y coordinate system. Scaling data 210 includes data relating tothe scaling of the common element according to the particular glyph.Scaling of the element may increase or decrease the size of the element212.

The unique elements 212 are elements that are unique to the particularglyph, and thus are not stored in the element database 250. Each uniqueelement 212 is represented by a unique element identifier 214 anddescription data 216. The description data is a set of points in a X-Ycoordinate system that defines the lines and curves of the uniqueelement.

In another embodiment, the unique elements 212 may be stored in theelement database 250 and identified by their corresponding uniqueelement identifiers 214. The data structure 200 may thus store only theunique element identifiers 214 for the unique elements 212.

The rendering engine 106, in response to a request for the particularglyph, accesses the corresponding data structure 200 stored in thestorage 108 and constructs a skeleton according to the elements 202 and212. The skeleton is then utilized as the font data for rendering by therendering engine 106, which then applies style, thickness of lines, andother characteristics of a typeface during rendering. In anotherembodiment, the skeleton according to the elements 202 and 212 may beconstructed by another application or process external to the renderingengine 106, and then provided to the rendering engine 106.

If a plurality of fonts are to be used at the mobile device 100,separate element databases 250 may be stored in the storage 108. Eachseparate database 250 may correspond to a particular font.Alternatively, all font data may be stored in a single database 250.

FIG. 3 illustrates repetitive usage of a common element 302 and 306 indifferent glyphs of Chinese Japanese Korean (“CJK”) ideographs 304 andin different glyphs of European glyphs 308, respectively. The commonelement 302 is shown in different glyphs of CJK ideographs 304, and thecommon element 306 is shown in the different European glyphs 308. Foreach particular glyph, the common elements 302 and 306 are shifted andscaled accordingly.

FIG. 4 illustrates shifting and scaling of a common element 402 used inthree Korean glyphs 404, 406, 408. A first Korean glyph 404 shows thecommon element 402 in static form where it has not been shifted orscaled. A second Korean glyph 406 shows the common element 402 shiftedtowards one side. A third Korean glyph 408 shows the common element 402scaled to a larger size.

FIG. 5A provides a flowchart of a method for creating stroke font datafrom source font data. In one embodiment, the source font data isoutline font data. One example of outline font data is font dataaccording to the TrueType™ font specification and as stored in theTrueType™ font file “glyph” table. Other outline font information mayalso be used.

For each glyph, the steps of glyph analysis 2000, glyph dissection 3000,midline extraction 4000, element analysis 5000, and conversion 6000 areperformed. The process of FIG. 5A is typically executed on a computingdevice such as a server or personal computer to prepare the font datastructure 200 and the element database 250 for storage on a mobiledevice 100. The process of FIG. 5A may, for example, comprise anexemplary structure of a software application program or set ofinstructions that cause a computing device to perform the processes. Theprocess may be implemented on a single computing device, or may bedistributed over several computing devices, such as several computers incommunication over a computer network.

FIG. 5B provides a more detailed flowchart of the glyph analysis step2000. During the glyph analysis step 2000, information about a givenglyph is collected and the shape of the glyph is simplified. The glyphanalysis step 2000 includes the steps of glyph simplification 2100,contour analysis 2200, containment analysis 2300, and contour pointanalysis 2400. Unless otherwise stated, a contour is a polygon shape ofa particular glyph, and a point is a vertex. A glyph may comprise asingle contour, such as the following glyph for the letter “1”, or maybecomprise a plurality of contours, such as the following glyph for thesymbol “Θ”.

During the step of glyph simplification, the outlines of a given glyphare simplified. During the step of contour analysis 2200, the contoursof the given glyph are sorted into inner and outer contour groups.During the step of containment analysis 2300, the contours of the givenglyph are processed to determine containment of the contours. During thestep of contour point analysis 2400, data related to each contour pointis collected. This data may include Cartesian coordinates, angles of thepoint with respect to other points, valid neighboring points, etc.

FIG. 6 illustrates a line diagram of a glyph in non-simplified form 600and in a simplified form 602 after the glyph simplification step 2100.As shown, the glyph 600 has contours 612, 614, and 616 comprisingstraight segments and Bezier arcs. The contours 612, 614 and 616 of theglyph 600 are simplified in the circled regions to simplify processingin later steps. The glyph simplification step 2100 may be omitted ifprocessing reduction is not required or not of particular concern.

The simplification is accomplished by removing redundant points in theshape of the given glyph. FIG. 5C shows an exemplary simplificationprocess. The simplification process may comprise a cluster removalprocess 2102, a Bezier arc degree reduction process 2104, and a polygonsimplification process 2106. Other simplification processes may also beused.

During the cluster removal process 2102, groups of points (“clusters”)where the points are proximate such that the points are unable to definea significant segment in the contour are simplified to new segments byremoving points or segments. Typically, these are relatively shortsegments or points that may be removed from a glyph definition whilecausing minimal or no distortions to the shape of the given glyph.

For segment removal, a maxim length and/or angle for a redundant segmentis defined. The specified value for the maxim length and/or angle may beuser defined, or determined automatically based on simplificationcriteria. Typically, a larger maxim length and/or angle results inadditional simplification, but may also result in additional visibledistortion. The maxim length is typically determined by the desiredquality of the result stroke font desired.

A straight segment, whose length and/or angle is less than or equal tothe specified values is simplified or removed by removing one or more ofthe points from the outline of the glyph. The removal process may beimplemented by an iteration through the points of all the contours anddetermining the length of each segment defined by a pair ofn_(i)-n_(i+1) vertices and removing the segments that satisfy thecondition length and/or angle conditions. Each contour is processedrepetitively until the number of removed segments is zero. Thisiteration process is repeated for each of the contours of the outlinesof the glyph.

During the Bezier arc degree reduction process 2104, Bezier arcs aresimplified. Bezier arcs are defined by polynomials of 2nd (quadraticBezier) or 3rd (cubic Bezier) degree. Quadratic Bezier arcs are definedas sequences of three points: on-curve—off-curve—on-curve. Cubic Bezierarcs are defined as sequences of four points:on-curve—off-curve—off-curve—on-curve. “Degree reduction” is a processof reducing a cubic arc into a conic arc, thus reducing the degree ofpolynomial from 3 to 2. Degree reduction finds an intersection point oftwo segments of the cubic arc. For example, if the cubic arc is definedby four vertices: n_(i), n_(i+1) n_(i+2), n_(i+3), then the intersectionpoint of n_(i)-n_(i+1) and n_(i+2)-n_(i+3) segments is determined. Theintersection point is then defined as a new off-curve point of the arcand the arc's definition is further defined as:n_(i)−new control/off-curve point−n_(i+3),where the vertices n_(i+1) and n_(i+2) are replaced by the single pointnew control/off-curve point. The start and end points of the arc arepreserved, and the number of insignificant points in the contour is thusreduced. Of course, other arc simplification routines may also be used.

During the polygon simplification process 2106, contour points that lieat a certain distance from the line defined by its two immediateneighbors on either side are removed. For example, a point is removedwhen a difference between the straight angle and the angle defined bythe point and two neighbors is less than a constant value or “maximalangle.” The maximal angle may be user defined, or determinedautomatically based on the desired amount of glyph simplification.

To illustrate, given triple vertices n_(i−1), n_(i), n_(i+1), the anglen_(i−1)-n_(i)-n_(i+1) is calculated. When the difference between thisangle and the straight angle is less than the maximal angle, then then_(i) point is discarded. There may exist two thresholds for off-curveand on-curve points, respectively. For example, if the n_(i) point ofthe triple n_(i−1), n_(i), n_(i+1) is on-curve, then one maximal anglevalue s₁ may be used; when the n_(i) point is off-curve, another maximalangle value s₂ may be used.

After simplification, the contours of the given glyph are sorted intoinner and outer contour groups during the contour analysis 2200 step.FIG. 7 shows an outline shape 700 of a glyph 702 having an inner contour704 and an outer contour 706. The inner contour 704 illustrativelydefines bound spaces within the outer contour 706. Such a shape may bedescribed as a polygon with “holes” in which the outer contour 706 is apolygon outer boundary and the inner contour 704 defines the “hole”inside the polygon.

According to TrueType™ conventions, inner and outer contours are definedto be ordered in opposite directions. For example, the outer contourdirection is clockwise and inner contour direction is counter-clockwise,or vice-versa. In order to determine the direction of the contours, thepoints of each of the contours are iterated through, and the signed areaof the contour is computed according to the formula of polygon's area:

$\begin{matrix}{{poly\_ area} = {0.5*\left\lbrack {\left( {{{V_{0} \cdot x}*{V_{1} \cdot y}} - {{V_{1} \cdot x}*{V_{0} \cdot y}}} \right) + \ldots +} \right.}} \\{\left( {{{V_{i} \cdot x}*{V_{i + 1} \cdot y}} - {{V_{i + 1} \cdot x}*{V_{i} \cdot y}}} \right) + \ldots +} \\{\left. \left( {{{V_{n - 1} \cdot x}*{V_{n} \cdot y}} - {{V_{n} \cdot x}*{V_{n - 1} \cdot y}}} \right) \right\rbrack,}\end{matrix}$where V_(i) is a polygon's vertex and n is the total number of verticesin the polygon. The resulting value of the poly_area is a signed valuethat determines whether the contour is ordered clockwise orcounter-clockwise. A positive value corresponds to counter-clockwisedirection, and a negative sign corresponds to clockwise direction. Ifthe area is zero, the direction is generally undefined and thus may beset as a default clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. In oneembodiment, the contour is defined to be of counter-clockwise directionif the area is zero.

After sorting, the contours of the given glyph are processed todetermine containment during the containment analysis step 2300. Eachouter contour is analyzed to determine if an inner contour is containedwithin it. Each of the contours is then classified accordingly. Theclassification determines separate shapes for each glyph, and thus theglyph may be defined as a collection of separate shapes. Each of theseparate shapes comprises one or more contours, the first contour beingthe outer contour and any other contours being inner contours.

Containment may be determined by a simple brute-force algorithm thattakes every inner contour and iterates through its points. Othercontainment algorithms may also be used. In the brute-force algorithm,every point of each inner contour is iterated and checked to determinewhether it is inside an outer contour for all outer contours. If all ofthe points of an inner contour are inside one of the outer contours,then the inner contour is completely contained in the outer contour. Inone embodiment, the outer contour is defined as a containing contour,and the inner contour is defined as a contained contour. Once all of theouter and inner contours are classified, the given glyph may berepresented as a sequence of separate shape data structures. Each datastructure contains a reference to the given glyph, and information aboutthe glyph's containing and contained contours.

The points of the contours are then processed during the contour pointanalysis step 2400. Outline information about each remaining pointcorresponding to the raw glyph data is analyzed. Point coordinates areobtained from the analysis, as shown in step 2402 of FIG. 5D. In theTrueType™ font example, the information is obtained from TrueType™ file.This information includes the coordinates of the points and specified infont units, the type of point (e.g., on-curve or off-curve point), andthe index of the points into an array of points of the raw glyph datafrom the TrueType™ file.

The points of each of the separate shapes are classified to provideadditional information about each point. The inner angle of each pointis determined and, based on the value, the point is assigned to be ofconvex or reflex type as shown in step 2404, and valid neighbors of eachof the points are determined, as shown in step 2406.

During the classification of each point as convex or reflex, two anglesat vertex n_(i) are determined. One angle is classified as an innerangle and the other angle as an outer angle. The inner angle refers toan angle defined by the point and two of its immediate neighbors andbelonging to the interior or bounded region of the polygon (given thevertex n_(i) of the polygon, there exists the triangle defined byn_(i−1), n_(i), n_(i+1)). The outer angle refers to an angle defined bythe point and two of its immediate neighbors and belonging to theexterior or unbounded region of the polygon (again, given the vertexn_(i) of the polygon, there exists the triangle defined by n_(i−1),n_(i), n_(i+1)).

The two angles at vertex n_(i) sum to 360 degrees. The vertex n_(i)point is a common point in the set of points n_(i−1), n_(i), n_(i+1). Todefine an angle, it is determined whether the vertex n_(i+1) lies on afirst side or a second side of the line defined by the n_(i−1)-n_(i)segment. The formula for determining the signed area of a triangle isused, where the triangle is defined by a triple of n_(i−1), n_(i),n_(i+1) vertices. For clockwise-oriented contours, a positive value forthe triangle area corresponds to the n_(i+1) vertex being on the firstof the line defined by n_(i−1)-n_(i) pair of vertices. The n_(i) vertexis thus a reflex type. Conversely, a negative or zero value correspondsto the n_(i) vertex being on the right of the line defined byn_(i−1)-n_(i) pair of vertices, and thus the n_(i) vertex is a convextype. For the counter-clockwise-oriented contours, the definition isreversed.

The values of angles in degrees may be determined by law of cosines. Anypoint having an obtuse inner angle is thus classified as a reflex point,and any point having an acute inner angle is classified as a convexpoint. When the inner angle is straight, the point may be defined as aconvex point according to one embodiment of the present invention. Inanother embodiment, when the inner angle is straight, the point isdefined as a reflex point.

Valid neighboring points (“valid neighbors”) are also determined foreach point, as shown in step 2406. Any point of the contours of thegiven glyph is a valid neighbour of any other given point if: (1) bothpoints belong to the same separate shape, e.g., both points belong toeither to the outer contour or to any contained inner contours; and (2)a line segment defined by the two points does not cross any othersegment of any contour of the separate shape, e.g., the line segmentdefined by the two points is completely contained inside the separateshape. If any point satisfies the above two conditions, it is added tothe list of valid neighbors of the point in question. Valid neighborsare then sorted by their distances from the given point and ranked suchthat the closest neighbor is ranked first.

The area of the separate shape is defined by the conjunction of itsouter and inner contours:S _(area)=(A B _(i) +A B _(i+1) + . . . +A B _(i+n))−(A B _(i) +A B_(i+1) + . . . A B _(i+n)),where S is the separate shape area, A_(area) is the area of an outercontour of the separate shape S, and B_(i . . . n) are areas of innercontours of the separate shape S.

Valid neighbors of a given point may be characterized “seen” points fromthe given point. A straight line segment is drawn to connect a point tothe given point and represents a visual path between the two points. Ifthe straight line segment is not interfered by a separate shape oranother line segment of the contour, then the point is a valid neighborof the given point, i.e., the point is “seen” from the given point.

FIG. 8 shows a line diagram of a glyph shape with lines between pointsto provide a pictorial explanation of valid and non-valid neighbors of apoint 800. The lines between point 800 and other points 802, 804, 806,and 808 illustrate that the other points 802, 804, 806, and 808 arevalid neighbors of the point 800. The other points 802, 804, 806, and808 are “seen” from the point 800 without crossing any segment of theglyph shape and belong to the same separate shape as the point 800. Thelines between point 800 and points 810 and 812 illustrate that the firstpoints 810 and 820 are not valid neighbors of point 800, because thepoint 800 and the first points 810 and 812 do not belong to the sameseparate shape. The lines between point 800 and the points 814 and 816illustrate that the second points 814 and 816 are not valid neighbors ofpoint 800, because these lines cross segments of the glyph shape.

During the glyph dissection step 3000, the glyph is dissected/decomposedinto a series of “strokes”. The strokes do not necessarily have acorrespondence to each of the separate shapes of the given glyph. Oneseparate shape may be dissected/decomposed into a number of strokes.Unless stated otherwise, the terms “dissection” and “decomposition” areused interchangeably.

FIG. 9 shows a line diagram of an example of a sample glyph 900dissected into strokes as indicated by numbers 902, 904, 906, 908, 910,and 912. As also shown, separate shape 914 has three strokes indicatedby the numbers 906, 908, and 910.

A stroke may correspond to the method by which characters are drawn witha pen or painted with a paintbrush. Some characters may be drawn withjust one stroke, for example, while others may require several strokes.A “vector of movement” may thus be derived from the concept of thenatural movement of a pen. The vector of movement corresponds to thepoints of a stroke that lie along the same path that resembles thenatural movement of a pen. Because not all the points of the outline maylie along the same path, the vector of movement is applied only tocertain sets of points in order to define the movement of a stroke.

FIG. 5E provides a flowchart of an exemplary glyph dissection process.Each extracted stroke is geometrically defined as a closed polygon orcontour. Each stroke has two sides, a first side of the stroke and asecond side of the stroke. Each side has a pair of start and end points,denoting the points where the side starts and ends. All the points ofboth sides may be stored in sequential order to facilitate sequentiallyincrementing from a first point of the first side to a last point of thesecond side.

In one embodiment, each contour may be represented by points in an arraydata structure, and each point may be referenced by the index of itsentry in the array. Starting points are determined by selecting a pairof points to define the first and second sides, as shown in step 3002,and incrementing through the points on the first and second sides, asshown in step 3004. The first side of the stroke moves to the next entryin the array, and the opposite side moves to the previous entry in thearray. For example, if a current point on the first side is point 3,then the next point to be incremented to is point 4. Likewise, if thecurrent point on the second side is point 11, then the next point to beincremented to is point 10.

As the points are traversed, the paths defining the first and secondsides of the contour move from point to point. The traversed path isstored as a set of point increments, and after each point increment, thesystem determines if a stroke is closed, as shown in step 3006. Thestroke process is completed when the first and second sides meet at thesame point. Other conditions may alternatively be satisfied for a stroketo be completed.

If the stroke is not closed, then for each incremented point, it isdetermined whether the incremented point is a candidate point, as shownin step 3008. A candidate point corresponds to a turn or angle in theoutline where two or more strokes possibly intersect each other.Accordingly, the next point to be incremented to may not be a next pointalong the path. Rather, the next point to be incremented to may be apoint corresponding to the vector of movement. In one embodiment,candidate points are reflex points having inner angles that are obtuse.

This next valid point to be incremented to is a “move-to” point. Themove-to point may not necessarily be the immediate neighbor of thecandidate point; rather, the move-to point corresponds to the vector ofmovement such that the current stroke receives a natural continuationcorresponding to the notion of a natural movement of a pen used to drawthe stroke. Thus, moving from the candidate point to next point alongthe path that is not a move-to point violates the notion of a naturalcontinuation of a stroke. Therefore, the valid move-to point for acandidate point is selected based on the vector of movement, and thevalid move-to point is stored as an “occurrence” or “event,” as shown instep 3010.

Conversely, if the current point of the side is not a candidate point,then vector of movement determination need not be applied. In this case,the valid move-to point may be selected independent of the vector ofmovement, as shown in step 3012.

A “move-to” point on a side lies proximate to a line formed by theside's previous point and the side's current point. Whether a point isproximate is determined based on the difference between a flat angle andan angle defined by the triple of vertices comprising the previous point(side_previous_point), the current point (side_current_point), and theproposed “move-to” point. The difference is preferably less than aspecified flatness threshold value. For each particular font theflatness threshold value may differ, and typically ranges between 10 to25 degrees.

In one embodiment, where there are several proposed move-to points to beevaluated, the point selected as the valid move-to point is the pointclosest to the current point of the side in terms of distance betweenthem. In another embodiment, where there are several proposed move-topoints to be evaluated, the point selected as the valid move-to point isthe point for which the difference is most below the flatness threshold.Other evaluation criteria may also be used.

If a valid move-to point is found, the movement continues to the validmove-to point. The movement from a candidate point to a valid move-topoint is stored as an “occurrence” or “event,” as shown in step 3012.Events may be further classified for each side, and as mutual events.Mutual events are recorded when the events happen at both sidessimultaneously. The mutual event is stored as pairs of candidate pointsof both sides and their corresponding move-to points. Events may connecttwo strokes together and may serve as potential starting points forother strokes.

Step 3014 determines if all of the points for a given stroke have beenprocessed, or if the stroke is closed. If points remain to be processedor if the stroke is not closed, then steps 3004-3012 are repeated.Otherwise, step 3016 determines if any events or points for the glyphremain to be processed. If so, then a new set of points is selected, asshown in step 3018, and steps 3004-3016 are repeated. Otherwise, theprocess is complete.

FIG. 10 shows a line diagram of an exemplary glyph 1000 dissected inaccordance with the glyph dissection process 3000. The exemplary glyph1000 has an outline shape defined by points 1 to 37. Pairs of startpoints enclosed in rectangles 1002, 1004, 1006, 1008 are start points ofstrokes 1010, 1012, 1014, 1016. The points 9, 30 and 32, 35 denoted bythe rectangles 1006, 1008 are also events that are start points ofstrokes 1014 and 1016. Encircled points 9, 33, 18, 32, and 36 arecandidate points and their corresponding move-to points are 30, 10, 37,35, and 1, respectively, according to the direction of each stroke asindicated by the central arrows of strokes 1010, 1012, 1014 and 1016.Candidate point 33 is common to strokes 1014 and 1016 and thus isassociated with move-to point 10 for stroke 1014 and move-to point 34for stroke 1016. Each of the strokes 1010, 1012, 1014, 1016 is denotedwith an arrow that indicates the vector of moment.

FIG. 5F provides a more detailed flowchart of the glyph dissectionprocess 3000. Step 3020 sets various processing values. In oneembodiment, the various processing values include, a flatness thresholdvalue, a starting threshold value, a starting span depth value, anunmarked points tolerance value, and an unmarked segments tolerancevalue.

The flatness threshold value is used to evaluate a potential move-topoint. The starting threshold value starting span depth value is used todetermine starting points. The unmarked points tolerance value is usedto specify how many unprocessed points may be tolerated for a givenshape. The unmarked segments tolerance value is used to specify how manyunprocessed segments may be tolerated for one shape.

A pair of starting points is then selected, as shown in step 3022. Inone embodiment, the start points are selected according to theirposition on the x-y axis, e.g., the left most pairs of points, such aspoints 5, 6, 21 and 22 of FIG. 10, are selected as start points. Othermethods of selecting start points may also be used.

The starting threshold value is used to define a point as a candidate.If the angles at the vertices in question are less than the startingthreshold value, the points are a valid pair of starting points and aredefined as clean starting points. If both angles are greater than thestarting threshold value, the pair is discarded and another pair ispicked. If one of the angles is greater than the starting thresholdvalue, then an angle that is the difference between the one of theangles and 360 degrees is compared to the starting threshold value. Ifthe compared value is less than the starting threshold value, the pairof points is a valid pair of starting points and defined as dirtystarting points.

Pairs are not immediate neighbors; there is typically at least one pointbetween them. The depth of the distance, in amount of points, is definedby the starting span depth value.

The process of selecting starting points may be simplified by utilizinga font pattern. In one embodiment, if a font pattern is used, pairs ofstarting points selected according to the font pattern have priorityover other pairs. Likewise, clean pairs have priority over dirty pairs.After determining all the possible pairs, the pairs are prioritized instep 3024 and selected based on the priority in step 3026. Within eachpriority group a pair with the smallest distance between the points isselected.

After picking a pair of starting points, the two sides of the stroke aredefined, as shown in step 3028. Each side has a starting point and isincremented along a path from this starting point, as shown in step3030. In one embodiment, the points of each shape are stored in an arraydata structure, and incrementing along a path results in iteratingthrough the array from the array cells storing the starting points.

The point is then evaluated to determine whether it is a candidatepoint, as shown in step 3032. When a candidate point is encountered,valid move-to points are determined as described above in steps 3010 and3012. If the point is not a candidate point, the system increments tothe next point along the path, as shown in step 3034. For non-candidatepoints, the instant point is incremented to the next point if theinstant points on both sides are valid neighbors, satisfy a waitingangle evaluation, and the next point is not owned by another alreadycreated stroke. These conditions are typically valid only for pointsthat are not candidate points, since candidate points may be co-owned byseveral strokes due to stroke intersections.

A “can-see” rule is used to determine if the instant points on bothsides are valid neighbors. The can-see rule is satisfied if, at eachincrement, both sides' instant points “see” each other, i.e., theinstant point of a first side has the instant point of the second sideamong its valid neighbors. Violation of the can-see rule may resulteither from a wrongly chosen move-to point during an occurrence or fromthe layout of the shape of the glyph.

During the determination of a valid move-to point for the givencandidate point, a violation of the can-see rule results in the proposedmove-to point being discarded. If the violation is caused by the layoutof the shape of the glyph, then the instant point is discarded and thepoint closest to the instant point from the list of valid neighbors ofthe other side is selected. For example, if a violation of the can-seerule results while moving along one side of the stroke, the instantpoint of that side is discarded and replaced by the first availablepoint from the list of neighbors of the other sides' instant point.

The waiting angle value is used to prevent possible “can-see” ruleviolations by normalizing the increment rate of movement along bothsides of the stroke. For example, a first side may increment quickly ifthere are fewer points along the first side's path and the distancesbetween the points are relatively large as compared to the points of thesecond side. The second side may thus comprise more points and lag thefirst side for an equal number of increments. To facilitate the currentpoints of both sides being proximate, the angles defined by the currentpoints and relative to the two sides are compared for each side to awaiting angle. If the angle of a side is less than the waiting angle,then the current point for that side is not incremented, while thecurrent point for the other side is incremented.

FIG. 11 illustrates a waiting angle for several points. A rectangle isdefined by points 1-9 and having start points 1 and 9. The path isincremented from start points 1 and 9 to points 2 and 8, respectively.Waiting angles α₁ and α₂ are compared to a threshold waiting angle(e.g., 66 degrees). Since both weighing angles α₁ and α₂ exceed 66degrees, both paths are incremented. Waiting angles α₃ and α₄ arecompared to the threshold waiting angle. Because waiting angle α₄, whichis 45 degrees, is less than the waiting angle of 66 degrees, the pathfrom point 7 will not be incremented to point 6, while the path frompoint 3 will be incremented to point 4.

Each time both sides perform a move to their corresponding next pointsor after an occurrence or event occurs, the system determines whether acurrently processed stroke may be closed, as shown in step 3036 of FIG.5F. The closing of a stroke defines a data structure that stores all thepoints defining the two sides, pairs of start and end points of eachside, and events. Every processed point is classified as owned, exceptfor candidate points, as candidate points may be common to severalstrokes. The number of strokes the candidate point is common to may bestored in the data structure.

Upon closing a stroke, the system determines whether any of the pointsof the shape of the glyph have been left unprocessed, as shown in step3038. For example, if any point is not owned or not a candidate point,then the point has not been processed. Events are evaluated to determinewhether there are remaining events to process. Events may be stored in aqueue, and the first event in the queue is processed as a starting pairof points for a next stroke. If the event queue is empty, then newstarting points are picked and a pair of starting points is chosen, asshown in step 3040. Point processing is complete when there are noremaining points to process or the number of unprocessed points iswithin a user-defined value.

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary log from processing the glyph of FIG. 10. Thelog lists the processing steps of dissection and the information thateach stroke contains. All of the separate shapes of the exemplary glyphare iterated through to dissect each one of them into strokes.

The last step of glyph dissection 3000 is the merging of strokes, asshown in step 3042. To reduce redundancy, certain strokes may be unifiedinto one so that the number of lines in the glyph under the compact fontformat is reduced. The merging process searches for completely containedstrokes, and explicitly connected and implicitly connected strokes.

A completely contained stroke is a stroke that is completely containedin another stroke. In one embodiment, the determination of whether astroke is completely contained includes the step of determining whetherall of the points of a first stroke are contained within the boundsdefined by the points of a second stroke. If a stroke is completelycontained, it is discarded.

An explicitly connected stroke is a stroke that is defined, in part, bymutual events. When events occur on both sides of a shape, the eventsdefine a mutual event. The mutual event defines two pairs of points, onepair for each side of the shape. Each pair subsequently defines a pairof starting points for another stroke when events are processed from theevent queue. Thus, one mutual event may be a source for two strokes.These strokes may be merged together to form a single stroke.

FIG. 13 shows an explicitly connected stroke. A glyph defined by points1-20 comprises strokes 1020 and 1022. Mutual events 1024 and 1026 arestarting points for strokes defined by points 13-18 and 3-8,respectively. These strokes are thus combined to form an explicitlyconnected stroke 1022 defined by points 3-8 and 13-18.

Implicitly connected strokes occur when the pair of end points of onestroke is also the pair of starting points for another stroke. Thepoints of the strokes are iterated through to determine whether thestrokes have matching end points or starting points. If so, the strokesare merged into a single stroke.

After the merger step, the dissection process 3000 is complete, and theprocess of midline extraction 4000 is performed. A midline correspondsto a polygon skeleton of a given geometrical shape. A midline of arectangle, for example, may be a straight line corresponding to thelongitudinal axis of the rectangle. The skeleton is thus one or moreline(s) composed of segments that provides an approximate view of theshape. The decomposition of the given glyph into strokes where eachstroke provides the basis for midline in the final stroke-based shape ofa glyph facilitates the derivation of a glyph skeleton. During themidline extraction process 4000, the corresponding midlines of allstrokes are extracted. Extracted midlines 916 are shown, for example, inFIG. 9.

Each stroke is defined by two sides and a pair of start points and endpoints. The midline is determined by iterating through all of the pointsof the stroke. For each point on a first side a corresponding nearestpoint from the second side is found. For a segment defined by these twopoints a midpoint is found and added to a midline. The process isrepeated for each point on the second side. After both sides have beenprocessed, the length of both midlines is calculated. The longer midlineis defined to be the midline of the stroke.

The final midlines may be simplified by simplification processes similarto the glyph simplification process 2100 described above, and by mergingmidlines in a similar manner as described with respect to the mergerstep of the dissection process 3000 described above. Midlinesimplification reduces number of points in the glyph skeleton.

In the step of element analysis 5000, the glyphs are searched forelements having repetitive patterns. According to one embodiment of thepresent invention, pattern matching determines whether the patterns arerepetitive. Pattern matching may be performed by using a database ofpatterns. The patterns that occur frequently in the font are extractedfrom the font. The glyphs are defined in the database and the particularsections of the glyphs that have matching patterns are stored. Theinformation is read from the database prior to the pattern matchingprocess.

During the pattern matching process, the contours of a given glyph arecompared to patterns from the database. The comparison is based onsimilarity measurements obtained from invariance functions that measurecertain parameters of the shape. These parameters typically remainunchanged even when the shape undergoes different geometricaltransformations, and are thus “invariant” to the transformations.

Invariance may be determined by the transformations of isometry,similarity, and affine. An isometry transformation is a transformationof the plane that preserves distances. A similarity is a transformationof the plane that preserves shapes, and is a transformation of the planeobtained by composing a proportional scaling transformation (also knownas a homothety) with isometry. An affine transformation is atransformation that preserves lines and parallelism. Typicaltransformations used for pattern matching may include translation,proportional scaling, and nonproportional scaling. Other transformationsmay also be used.

An exemplary pattern matching process compares the similarity of twoshapes during a translation in a two dimensional plane in which everypoint of an original shape is shifted by a shift value along the X or Yaxis such that:X _(i)(new)=X _(i)(org)+<offset> andY _(i)(new)=Y _(i)(org)+<offset>,where X_(i) and Y_(i) are X and Y coordinates of the i-th point of theshape and the pattern. If the offset is known, then only one comparisonmay be required, e.g., whether X_(i)(org) may be obtained by subtractingthe value from X_(i)(new).

If the offset is not known, additional comparisons between the shape anda pattern may be required. For example, a rightmost point of the shapeand the pattern may be determined respective X and Y coordinatessubtracted to obtain an offset value. The remaining points of the shapeare selected and the X and Y coordinates of the points are subtractedfrom the offset value. If, as a result of subtraction, the X and Ycoordinates of the corresponding point of the pattern is received, thenthe shape is similar to the pattern. If the subtraction gives suchresult for all the points of the shape, then the shape is similar to thepattern. On the contrary, if the subtraction results in different X andY coordinate in the shape from the X and Y coordinates of the point ofthe pattern, then the shape is not similar to the pattern. Thus, underthe translation transformation the distances for similar shapes andpatterns remain unchanged.

For each glyph, the identified patterns are identified as commonelements 202 or unique elements 212 as described with reference to FIG.2 above. If a matching pattern is not found, then a unique element isused to describe the particular stroke.

Data such as font data provided by the Unicode consortium may be used todefine font elements. For CJK glyphs, for example, which defineideographs, radical-based element extraction may be used. Radicals arestrokes or event complete ideographs used to simplify the searchingprocess in CJK dictionaries. Similarly, under Unicode specifications,all the ideographs are grouped by the radicals (see, e.g., KangxiRadicals or CJK Radicals Supplement of the Unicode specifications).These radicals are the primary elements that are extracted. Pattern dataused during the pattern matching process comprises the glyphs, or partsof the glyphs that are radicals. In addition to the radicals of the CJK,additional patterns are defined based on the visual estimation, if anyspecific glyph or part of the glyph is recurrent in many glyphs.

By way of another example, for Korean Hangul syllables there are defineddecomposition rules that allow decomposing of each Hangul syllable toits Jamo characters, which is also covered by a Unicode specification.In Korean language all the Hangul syllables are composed of Jamocharacters, and thus Jamo glyphs may be regarded as basic elements tocompose Hangul glyphs for Korean.

For other languages, Unicode normalization charts, for example, may beused. For each composite glyph these charts define the simple glyphswhich the composite glyph comprises. There are normalization charts forHangul, Japanese, some CJK ideographs, complex Latin glyphs, and complexArabic glyphs. This information is used in the element analysis 5000 todefine the elements of the compact font format.

In another embodiment, pattern matching is accomplished without specificglyph data. Each shape is iterated through and stored in an evaluationdatabase. The system recursively determines whether there exist commonelements based on the data stored in the common database.

In the conversion step 6000, the geometrical data of the outline font isadjusted to the specifications of compact font format. For example, theoriginal points specified in TrueType™ typeface design units areconverted to compact font format design units. This conversion may besubject to various font metrics, such as font baseline, font ascent andfont descent. Other metrics may also be used.

The conversion step 6000 stores the font data as a set of datastructures 200 and a database 250 as described with reference to FIG. 2above. Elements that are pattern matched with other elements are storedas common elements 204 in the element database 250, and are referencedin a corresponding glyph data structure 200. The glyph data structure200 also stores corresponding shift X values 206, shift Y values 208,and scaling values 210. Unique elements 212 are stored with theattendant description data 216 as described with reference to FIG. 2above. Another exemplary data structure is that of the Slangsoft FontFormat as described in the above-referenced provisional application60/393,795. Other data structures and storage architecture may also beused.

After the conversion step 6000 is completed, the font data may then bestored on a mobile device 100 for use with an application program orrendering engine as described with reference to FIG. 1 above. Theconversion step 6000 may also be incorporated in the element analysisstep 5000.

While the systems and methods of this present application have beendescribed with reference to font data, the systems and methods of thispresent application may also be applied to other data types, such asgraphical data entities, map entities, or other visual display entities.In another embodiment, the exemplary data structures of the presentsystem and method may be used to store map data in a compact format. Forexample, the map of a geographic region, such as a city, may be storedin the compact format of the exemplary data structure and accessed by arendering engine to reconstruct a map of the city. Additionally, as themobile device changes location, additional mapping data for the newgeographic region in which the mobile device is located may bedownloaded.

This written description uses illustrative embodiments to disclose theinvention, including the best mode, and also to enable a person ofordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention. Otherembodiments and devices are within the scope of the claims if they haveelements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims orhave elements equivalent to those recited in the claims.

1. A system for creating font format data from source font data,comprising: a glyph analysis software module stored in a computerreadable medium and comprising computer executable instructions that areoperable to cause a computing device to analyze the source font data andobtain glyph data for a plurality of glyphs from the source font data; aglyph dissection software module stored in a computer readable mediumand comprising computer executable instructions that are operable tocause a computing device to dissect the glyph data for each glyph intostroke data; a midline extraction software module stored in a computerreadable medium and comprising computer executable instructions that areoperable to cause a computing device to extract midline data from thestroke data; and an element analysis software module stored in acomputer readable medium and comprising computer executable instructionsthat are operable to cause a computing device to classify the midlinedata as unique element data and common element data and associate theunique element data and the common element data to each glyph of theplurality of glyphs; wherein the glyph analysis software module computerexecutable instructions further comprise contour point analysis softwareinstructions that are operable to cause a computing device to classifythe glyph data according to contour characteristics that include convexand reflex angle characteristics.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theglyph analysis software module computer executable instructionscomprise: contour analysis software instructions that are operable tocause a computing device to sort the glyph data into inner and outercontour data; and containment analysis software instructions that areoperable to cause a computing device to determine containment of theinner and outer contour data.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein theglyph analysis software module computer executable instructions furthercomprise glyph simplification software instructions that are operable tocause a computing device to generate reduced glyph data from the glyphdata.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the glyph simplificationsoftware instructions that are operable to cause a computing device togenerate reduced glyph data from the glyph data comprise: clusterremoval software instructions that are operable to cause a computingdevice to reduce data clusters in the glyph data; Bezier arc reductionsoftware instructions that are operable to cause a computing device toreduce Bezier arc data in the glyph data; and polygon simplificationsoftware instructions that are operable to cause a computing device toreduce polygon definition data in the glyph data.
 5. The system of claim1, wherein the contour characteristics further include valid neighborcharacteristics.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the glyph dissectionsoftware module computer executable instructions comprise instructionsthat are operable to cause a computing device to: select starting strokedata from the glyph data; increment through the glyph data from thestarting stroke data; determine if the incremented glyph data iscandidate data; and if the incremented glyph data is candidate data,then select the next increment through the glyph data according tovector of movement data.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the glyphdissection software module computer executable instructions furthercomprise instructions that are operable to cause a computing device to:store the increment through the glyph data according to the vector ofmovement data as event data; and select event data as starting strokedata for subsequent dissection of glyph data into stroke data.
 8. Thesystem of claim 6, wherein the instructions that are operable to cause acomputing device to select the next increment through the glyph dataaccording to vector of movement data comprises instructions that areoperable to cause a computing device to compare a proposed increment inthe glyph data to a flatness threshold and determine whether theproposed increment in the glyph data is valid based on the comparison.9. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions that are operable tocause a computing device to select starting stroke data from the glyphdata comprise instructions that are operable to cause a computing deviceto: identify starting stroke data from the source font data; identifystarting stroke data according to starting threshold data; andprioritize the identified staring stroke data and select the highestpriority identified staring stroke data.
 10. The system of claim 6,wherein the glyph dissection software module computer executableinstructions further comprise instructions that are operable to cause acomputing device to merge stroke data for each glyph after dissection ofthe glyph data.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructionsthat are operable to cause a computing device to merge stroke data foreach glyph after dissection of the glyph data comprise instructions thatare operable to cause the computing device to: identify explicitlyconnected stroke data; identify implicitly connected stroke data; mergethe explicitly connected stroke data; and merge the implicitly connectedstroke data.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the midline extractionsoftware module executable instructions comprise instructions that areoperable to cause a computing device to: increment through the strokedata; for each increment, determine and store a midline data value; anddefine the midline data as the stored midline data values afterincrementing through the stroke data.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the instructions that are operable to cause a computing deviceto determine and store a midline data value comprise instructions thatare operable to cause a computing device to: define segment data basedon the incremented stroke data; define a midpoint based on the segmentdata; and define the midline data value as a midpoint.
 14. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the element analysis software module computerexecutable instructions comprise instructions that are operable to causea computing device to: identify midline data defining a common pattern;identify midline data defining a unique pattern; classify eachidentified midline data defining a common pattern according to a commonelement identifier; and classify each identified midline data defining aunique pattern according to a unique element identifier.
 15. The systemof claim 14, wherein the element analysis software module computerexecutable instructions further comprise instructions that are operableto cause a computing device to: store the common element identifier andcorresponding translation data in a glyph data structure; store theunique element data in the data structure; and store the common elementidentifier and the common element data in a common element database;wherein the corresponding common element data as translated by thetranslation data and the unique element data define a polygon skeletonof a glyph shape.
 16. A method of creating font format data from sourcefont data, comprising: analyzing the source font data to obtain glyphdata for a plurality of glyphs; dissecting the glyph data; extractingmidline data from the dissected glyph data; classifying the midline dataas unique element data and common element data; and associating theunique element data and the common element data to each glyph of theplurality of glyphs; wherein the analyzing step includes: sorting theglyph data into inner and outer contour data; determining containment ofthe inner and outer contour data; and classifying the glyph dataaccording to contour characteristics that include convex and reflexangle characteristics.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein analyzing thesource font data to obtain glyph data for a plurality of glyphs furthercomprises generating reduced glyph data from the glyph data.
 18. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the contour characteristics further includevalid neighbor characteristics.
 19. The method of claim 16, whereindissecting the glyph data comprises: selecting starting stroke data fromthe glyph data; incrementing through the glyph data from the startingstroke data; determining if the incremented glyph data is candidatedata; and if the incremented glyph data is candidate data, thenselecting the next increment through the glyph data according to vectorof movement data.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein dissecting theglyph data further comprises: storing the increments through the glyphdata according to the vector of movement data as event data; andselecting event data as starting stroke data for subsequent dissectionof glyph data into stroke data.
 21. The method of claim 19, whereinselecting the next increment through the glyph data according to vectorof movement data comprises: comparing a proposed increment in the glyphdata to a flatness threshold; and determining whether the proposedincrement in the glyph data is valid based on the comparison.
 22. Themethod of claim 19, wherein selecting starting stroke data from theglyph data comprises: identifying starting stroke data from the sourcefont data; identifying starting stroke data according to startingthreshold data; and prioritizing the identified starting stroke data;and selecting the highest priority identified starting stroke data. 23.The method of claim 19, wherein dissecting the glyph data furthercomprises merging stroke data for each glyph after dissection of theglyph data.
 24. The method of claim 23, wherein merging stroke data foreach glyph after dissection of the glyph data comprises: identifyingexplicitly connected stroke data; identifying implicitly connectedstroke data; merging the explicitly connected stroke data; and mergingthe implicitly connected stroke data.
 25. The method of claim 24,wherein extracting midline data from the dissected glyph data comprises:incrementing through the stroke data; for each increment, determiningand storing a midline data value; and defining the midline data as thestored midline data values after incrementing through the stroke data.26. The method of claim 16, wherein classifying the midline data asunique element data and common element data comprises: identifyingmidline data defining a common pattern; identifying midline datadefining a unique pattern; classifying each identified midline datadefining a common pattern according to a common element identifier; andclassifying each identified midline data defining a unique patternaccording to a unique element identifier.
 27. A method of creating fontformat data from source font data, comprising: analyzing the source fontdata to obtain glyph data for a plurality of glyphs; dissecting theglyph data; extracting midline data from the dissected glyph data;classifying the midline data as unique element data and common elementdata; and associating the unique element data and the common elementdata to each glyph of the plurality of glyphs; wherein the classifyingstep comprises: identifying midline data defining a common pattern;identifying midline data defining a unique pattern; classifying eachidentified midline data defining a common pattern according to a commonelement identifier; and classifying each identified midline datadefining a unique pattern according to a unique element identifier; andwherein the associating step comprises: storing the common elementidentifier and corresponding translation data in a glyph data structure;storing the unique element data in the glyph data structure; and storingthe common element identifier and the common element data in a commonelement database; and wherein the corresponding common element data astranslated by the translation data and the unique element data define apolygon skeleton of a glyph shape.
 28. A system for creating font formatdata from source font data, comprising: means for analyzing the sourcefont data to obtain glyph data for a plurality of glyphs; means fordissecting the glyph data; means for extracting midline data from thedissected glyph data; means for classifying the midline data as uniqueelement data and common element data, by identifying midline datadefining a common pattern, identifying midline data defining a uniquepattern, classifying each of the identified midline data defining acommon pattern according to a common element identifier, and classifyingeach of the identified midline data defining a unique pattern accordingto a unique element identifier; and means for associating the uniqueelement data and the common element data to each glyph of the pluralityof glyphs, by storing the common element identifier and correspondingtranslation data in a glyph data structure, storing the unique elementdata in the glyph data structure, and storing the common elementidentifier and the common clement data in a common element database,wherein the corresponding common element data as translated by thetranslation data and the unique element data define a polygon skeletonof a glyph shape.
 29. A system for creating font format data from sourcefont data, comprising: means for analyzing the source font data toobtain glyph data for a plurality of glyphs, by sorting the glyph datainto inner and outer contour data, determining containment of the innerand outer contour data, and classifying the glyph data according tocontour characteristics that include convex and reflex anglecharacteristics; means for dissecting the glyph data; means forextracting midline data from the dissected glyph data; means forclassifying the midline data as unique element data and common elementdata; and means for associating the unique element data and the commonelement data to each glyph of the plurality of glyphs.
 30. A system forcreating font format data from source font data, comprising: a glyphanalysis software module stored in a computer readable medium andcomprising computer executable instructions that are operable to cause acomputing device to analyze the source font data and obtain glyph datafor a plurality of glyphs from the source font data; a glyph dissectionsoftware module stored in a computer readable medium and comprisingcomputer executable instructions that are operable to cause a computingdevice to dissect the glyph data for each glyph into stroke data; amidline extraction software module stored in a computer readable mediumand comprising computer executable instructions that are operable tocause a computing device to extract midline data from the stroke data;and an element analysis software module stored in a computer readablemedium and comprising computer executable instructions that are operableto cause a computing device to classify the midline data as uniqueelement data and common element data and associate the unique elementdata and the common element data to each glyph of the plurality ofglyphs; wherein the glyph analysis software module computer executableinstructions further comprise glyph simplification software instructionsthat are operable to cause a computing device to generate reduced glyphdata from the glyph data and that include: cluster removal softwareinstructions that are operable to cause a computing device to reducedata clusters in the glyph data; Bezier arc reduction softwareinstructions that are operable to cause a computing device to reduceBezier arc data in the glyph data; and polygon simplification softwareinstructions that are operable to cause a computing device to reducepolygon definition data in the glyph data.